Revealed: The 6 most astonishing pieces of evidence that Jesus left behind
As the Bible tells it, 2024 years ago a man named Jesus was born in a little-known town on the edge of the Roman Empire and was killed 33 years later.
But do we really have any reason to believe this is more than just a story?
Perhaps surprisingly, experts say we do have extremely compelling evidence to support the story recounted by the gospels.
From the plethora of contemporary sources to the graffiti mocking his followers, Jesus' life left an indelible mark on the historical record.
Likewise, archaeologists working in Palestine and Israel have uncovered a number of artefacts supporting the basic facts of Jesus' life as described in the Bible.
Dr Lawrence Mykytiuk, a specialist in Hebrew studies from Purdue University, told MailOnline: 'We have many very good reasons to accept the real, historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth.'
1: Written evidence
The best reason we have to believe in the existence of the historical Jesus is that there surprisingly good written records about his life.
What makes this so compelling is that many of the accounts are written by non-Christian authors who were often openly opposed to Christianity.
Dr Mykytiuk says: 'For well over 1,000 years, no one claimed that Jesus did not exist.
'Every single non-Christian source from ancient times recognizes, implicitly or explicitly, that he was a real person who really existed.'
Possibly the best example of this comes from the Roman historian Tacitus who despised Christians.
In a section of the 'Annals' describing the AD 64 fire of Rome, Tacitus describes how Emperor Nero tried to shift the blame to early Christians.
Tacitus writes: 'Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts … whom the crowd called “Chrestians.”
Flavius Josephus (pictured) was a Jewish historian who wrote about 60 years after Jesus' death. In his history of the Jewish people he mentions 'the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah, James by name'
'The founder of this name, Christ, had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate.'
Likewise, the Jewish author Flavius Josephus mentions Jesus in his sprawling 'Jewish Antiquities' which was written just 60 years after Jesus' death.
In a section of the book, Josephus describes how a priest named Ananus tried to execute Jesus' "brother" (cousin), James.
He writes that Ananus 'called a meeting of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah, James by name.'
What makes this so interesting is that James, or Jacob as it would have been written, was such a common name that Josephus felt the need to specify by mentioning Jesus.
Dr Mykytiuk says: 'If Jesus, James’s brother, had not been a real person, this reference to Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah would have made no sense.'
2: The Alexamenos Graffito
Once we go beyond the written records, physical evidence of Jesus' existence becomes significantly harder to find.
This crude graffiti carved into a wall of the Palatine Hill in Rome is possibly the first depiction of Christians anywhere in the world
As researchers have noted, we don't have records for 99 per cent of the people who served in the Roman Empire.
This makes it astronomically unlikely that there would be any trace of a man who lived in poverty and met the fate of a common criminal.
Known as the Alexamenos Graffitto, this was a crude drawing scratched into the wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome somewhere between the first and third century AD.
The drawing depicts a man worshipping a donkey-headed man hanging from the cross with a message that translates to: 'Alexamenos worships [his] god.'
Dr Jonathan Reed, a leading authority on the archaeology of early Christianity from the University of La Verne, told MailOnline: 'The earliest evidence we have in the archaeological record for Christians is someone making fun of Jesus being crucified.'
The reason this is so convincing is that it passes what Dr Reed calls describes as 'the criterion of embarrassment'.
The fact that embarrassing details survived and that Christians were so distressed by them is actually a good sign that they weren't made up.
3: The Crucified heel
Another detail of the crucifixion that some scholars have found hard to explain is: If Jesus died an enemy of the state, why was he permitted a full burial?
Although there is plenty of evidence that the crucifixion really happened, some critics argue that Jesus would more likely have been thrown in a mass grave for criminals.
However, in 1986 a construction crew accidentally uncovered several tombs in Northern Jerusalem.
The crucified heel of a man named Jehohanan was found in a tomb in Israel. This proves that Jesus could have received a proper burial as the Gospel claims rather than being thrown into a mass burial pit for criminals
One ossuary, a chest for holding skeletal remains, was marked with the name Jehohanan and contained the remains of a man who appeared to have been crucified.
The bones included a heel which still had the nail embedded in it from where the man had been pinned to the cross.
Not only does this further support that the description of Jesus' nailing to the cross is accurate, but it also shows that families could retrieve the remains of crucified criminals.
4: The Shroud of Turin
This is a piece of cloth bearing an imprint of a man which is considered by many to be the cloth Jesus was wrapped in after the crucifixion.
(...)
'How exactly did that image get on the cloth, and how does it represent so accurately where Jesus would have been flagellated on his back, or nailed in his wrists, or bleed from the head due to something- say a thorny crown?'
5: The Church of the Apostles
In 2017, archaeologists digging in the area of El Araj, Israel made a surprising discovery.
Buried next to the River Jordan the archaeologists found the remains of a Byzantine basilica measuring 27m by 15m (88ft by 52ft).
Researchers believe that this may be the site of Bethsaida, the village which was home to the apostles Peter, Andrew, and Phillip.
If that were the case, this would make the El Araj basilica the lost 'Church of the Apostles which was supposedly built over the village's ruins.
Following further investigations in 2021, Professor Steven Notely, an archaeologist from Nyack College and co-director of the dig, told the Biblical Archaeology Society: 'There are no other churches in the vicinity mentioned by Byzantine visitors to the Holy Land, and there is no reason to question that this is the [Church of the Apostles].'
Even more interestingly, excavations found the remains of a Roman-era fishing village beneath the later church.
For some, this provides a compelling case that the Biblical account of Jesus' life is backed up by hard evidence.
6: The 'Jesus is God' inscription
This 1,800-year-old mosaic contains the ancient Greek phrase: 'The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.' This is the first recorded mention of the divinity of Christ
Just like the Alexamenos Graffito, evidence from the early church gives us a strong indication that there really was a person for the followers to unite around.(...)
Mailonline